Survival of the Fittest
by ohmytheon
Summary: There were a lot of impossible and strange things that had happened to Izuku in his seventeen years of living, but getting stranded in the middle of nowhere with the leader of the League of Villains had to be at the top of the list.


**Notes:** I just want everyone to know that this was one of the most fun things that I've ever written. This is both crack treated seriously and not at the same time. The prompts were "Survival/Wilderness Fic" + "Accidentally Saving the Day" + Deku & Shigaraki. I need to write Hands McGee more often.

 **Disclaimer:** I own nothing, not even the idea.

* * *

"I should kill you right now."

"Well, I mean, you could, but then you'd probably be stuck out here and die."

"I would not! I could survive without you."

"Have you ever gone camping?"

"No, it's boring and the outdoors is gross and dirty. Why go somewhere without electricity or basic plumbing?"

"Exactly. You wouldn't last two nights out here."

"I would too!"

"I've been camping a few times, although my last camping trip was kind of canceled when you ordered a group of villains to kill us."

"That's beside the point. It was technically a recruitment mission. Any potential deaths were secondary but not necessary goals."

There were a lot of impossible and strange things that had happened to Izuku in his seventeen years of living, but getting stranded in the middle of nowhere with the leader of the League of Villains had to be at the top of the list.

It had been due to a series of circumstances that the two found themselves in this position. They had been in the middle of a tense fight when another villain had zapped them both on accident and all of a sudden they'd woken up in a forest on a mountainside. Apparently, the villain had a grudge with Shigaraki in particular over something that he refused to disclose and Izuku had accidentally gotten caught in the middle of it. Neither one of them had phones or a clue to their whereabouts except that they were completely lost.

Continuing the fight had seemed rather pointless when they were both stranded in the wilderness, but that hadn't stopped Shigaraki from complaining about everything from the bugs to the lack of food. (He had not liked Izuku's dry suggestion of eating the bugs as a source of protein.) It led to them bickering like, well, siblings, except that there was the fact that Shigaraki had been actively trying to kill him and destroy hero society for the past two years.

So far, not so much luck, and now they were left to depend on each other.

Izuku supposed that being stuck with Shigaraki wasn't the worst option if he had to choose one. It could've been Dabi, who probably would've tried to kill him and use his body as kindling for a fire at night, or Toga, who also probably would have tried to kill him and maybe wear his skin to keep her warm. Or, even worse, try to kiss him. He shuddered just thinking about it.

Shigaraki narrowed his eyes at him suspiciously. "You're not getting cold, are you?"

"No, just thinking about being stuck out here with Toga instead," Izuku answered honestly.

Surprisingly, Shigaraki actually snorted. "That would be a nightmare. If she's not talking about wanting to kill people, she's talking about you."

"Not helping," Izuku told him.

"Wasn't trying to," Shigaraki retorted. "I'd rather be out here with her than Dabi. All he would do is complain and probably burn the forest down." As if he wasn't doing enough complaining himself, but Izuku chose to keep that to himself. Some battles were won by avoiding them altogether. "Toga is at least practiced in killing small animals, so we wouldn't starve."

"Do you even know how to start a fire to cook?" Izuku questioned.

It was hard to tell in the dark and with that hand over his face, but it looked like Shigaraki frowned in thought. "No, I guess Dabi would be useful for something."

Luckily, Izuku knew how to start a fire, but it wasn't fun with Shigaraki poking around and demanding to know what he was doing while simultaneously dismissing him. He wasn't even impressed when Izuku managed to build them a small fire to keep them warm tonight, calling the knowledge pointless even as it helped him. Izuku just rolled his eyes.

They'd been wandering this forest for at least six hours with no end in sight. Neither one of them had a clue where they were and Izuku didn't even think they were in Japan anymore. Wherever that villain had zapped them to, it was completely remote and devoid of any signs of other humans.

It was frustrating to say the least. The gear on his hero costume didn't do much to help him survive in the wilderness and neither one of them were comfortable resting with the other around. What if Shigaraki tried to disintegrate him in his sleep? Izuku wouldn't do anything to Shigaraki if he were to fall sleep, but try telling him that. He acted like Izuku would strangle him if he turned his back for a second, despite the fact that he'd been the one to wrap a hand around his neck before.

Apparently, a villain trusting a hero was as difficult as a hero trusting a villain.

"I'm hungry," Shigaraki announced after plopping down in front of the fire.

"As am I," Izuku admitted. They'd had nothing to eat since appearing here and the last time he'd eaten was lunch. The fight he'd started with the League had burned off a good amount of calories as well. He was starving. Honestly, he was surprised that his stomach wasn't rumbling like a monster. "I think I saw some berries, but I don't know if they're edible."

"If you're trying to poison me, that's not going to work."

Izuku sighed. "I'm not trying to poison you." Were all villains so suspicious?

Shigaraki folded his arms across his chest, which caused a very strange look with all those severed hands all up and down his arms. Was it uncomfortable? Did it feel funny with those hands always grabbing him? It was kind of awkward with the hand still on his face, but it was like he didn't feel comfortable without it. Izuku could understand that. They all had things that brought comfort to them, even villains, he supposed. Still, he'd seen Shigaraki's face before, so it shouldn't have been too much of a big deal, right?

"You know, you can take that hand off your face," Izuku said carefully.

"No," Shigaraki ground out.

"I understand that it's probably a source of comfort," Izuku continued, "but I feel like you're just hiding behind it. I don't know what from and you obviously don't need to tell me, but seeing as how it's just us, no one is here to make fun of you."

Shigaraki sputtered. "That's not–" His red eyes narrowed in between the fingers hiding his face. "You can stop with the psychoanalyzing. I'm not in the mood."

Izuku held his hands up in surrender. "Sorry, I've seen your face already, so I thought… It doesn't matter. I was just trying to be nice."

"Nice?" Shigaraki scoffed. "Heroes aren't nice to villains."

"We're stranded in the middle of nowhere together," Izuku pointed out with another sigh. "It doesn't mean that I have to be cruel instead."

They were both tired, hungry, and uncomfortable with each other, the culmination of which meant that they were very cranky as well. Izuku wanted nothing more than to curl up and sleep, but he knew that he couldn't do that. It wasn't like he could trust Shigaraki not to do anything to him or that he simply wouldn't leave. To be honest, Izuku thought that he might fair a little better without him, but despite all his complaints and snide comments about killing him, Shigaraki made no attempts to go his separate way.

"I wish we knew where we were," Izuku mumbled. He really needed to be more careful with his cell.

"I wish we weren't _here_ ," Shigaraki countered. Well, that was a better wish.

They fell into a tense silence, neither one of them having anything to say that the other would like. This was surreal. A part of him thought that they should be fighting right now, but he didn't know to what end out here. If he won, then what? He had an unconscious villain to deal with at best. Would he just leave him then? And if Shigaraki won, it wouldn't do much to gloat when he'd probably wander around until he died too. Seriously, did this guy ever get out? He had the pallor of someone that stayed in their basement all day. When did he come out to like…do villain stuff?

It was strange, looking at Shigaraki now and thinking of how terrified of him Izuku had once been. This was the guy who had held him hostage in a mall, attacked the USJ, ordered to raid on their training camp to kidnap Kacchan, took Overhaul's hands out of what sounded like spite. And now they were sitting across a small fire from each other just barely surviving in the woods after a huge fight and he'd spent a solid five hours complaining about things like a teenager whose parents had taken them on a camping trip instead of leaving them home to play video games.

"Why did you decide to become a villain?" Izuku blurted.

Shigaraki started. "What?"

"I was just…curious…" Izuku continued, lost in his own head. "I made the decision to become a hero. You couldn't have just been born a villain. Why did you choose this path?"

"Who says I'm a villain?" Shigaraki retorted. "You? The media? Your precious heroes?"

"Law enforcement?" Izuku offered.

"Oh, because I'm doing something wrong?" Shigaraki asked. Izuku didn't need to see his face to know that he was sneering; he could hear it in his voice. "And who determined that? I believe in my cause; I believe what I'm doing is right - that it's necessary."

Izuku frowned. "Who gave you that cause? Was it even yours or was it his?"

"Don't!" Shigaraki snapped, so viciously that Izuku would've flinched had he not been too tired. "My sensei took me in when I had no one. He raised me, took care of me, helped me develop my quirk and leadership skills. He taught me everything I know."

"Did he though?" Izuku questioned. "Or did he simply mold you to fulfill his own goals?"

Shigaraki jumped to his feet and held out his hands in a threatening manner that made Izuku clench his fists, but he didn't move from where he was sitting. He didn't want to fight. They didn't have the time for it nor the ability to waste energy on fighting each other. Shigaraki opened his mouth to argue or threaten, but before he could, a twig loudly snapped from somewhere in the darkness of the trees. Both of their heads whipped in that direction, but nothing else was heard.

"What was that?" Shigaraki demanded in a hiss.

"Probably an animal," Izuku answered as he stood up.

"But what kind?"

"Hopefully not the kind that wants to eat us."

Shigaraki snorted. "If we get offed by some woodland creature, then neither one of us deserve to be in the position we are." This was true. Bear, wolf, cougar - whatever the animal was, Izuku was sure that they had fought much more dangerous people, including each other.

Out of all the things Izuku had expected to happen next, hearing slow claps from the dark was probably at the bottom of his list. He and Shigaraki glanced at each other, confusion writ in their eyes, and then gazed back into the dark abyss of the woods. Who the hell was out here clapping like some cheesy villain? The realization popped into his head a second before a person stepped into the light of their fire.

" _You_ ," Shigaraki hissed.

"I've gotta say," declared the villain who had transported them here, "I'm a little impressed that you two didn't kill each other." He actually laughed. "Dare I say it? Did you two work together?"

Izuku made a face and bobbed his head side-to-side. He wouldn't say that what they'd done could be classified as " _working together"_ so much as " _not killing each other in order to survive,"_ but whatever floated this villain's boat. At least they weren't alone out here and perhaps had a means to get back to their city, even if it meant going through this villain.

"Take us back to the city right now or you'll regret it!" Shigaraki threatened.

Izuku tried not to sigh. That wasn't really helpful, as the villain pointed out, "I don't think you're in the position to threaten me. I'm the one with leverage. Kill me and you'll be stranded here."

"Who said anything about killing you?" Shigaraki queried, sounding genuinely pleased. "I was just planning on maiming you, disintegrating parts of your body until you give in."

"And you'd let him do that, hero?" the villain demanded.

No, but then again… "If he gets to you before I do, then I can only do so much to save you." Izuku shrugged his shoulders in an attempt to look cavalier. That was much more of Todoroki's style or even Kacchan's when he was in one of his more level-headed moods, but sometimes it was better to act like he didn't want to save everyone, even a villain that had dropped him into the woods with what might have been his archenemy. It was a bit difficult to attach that title to him right now.

Shigaraki bolted forward in the blink of an eye, startling Izuku. He'd forgotten how fast the League of Villains leader could be. The other villain just barely managed to dodge his arm getting grabbed. It was a good thing too since Shigaraki had every intent of using all five of his fingers to snatch him. He didn't need both arms to transport them back to the city. Whatever this person's exact quirk was, it wasn't meant for fighting or hand-to-hand combat, which was why the handgun he pulled out of his jacket stopped Shigaraki in his tracks.

"Shouldn't have camped so much - or maybe you should've gone camping more," the villain quipped, which was as quizzical and out there as this whole scenario.

There was little Shigaraki could do but recoil and snarl, "Bastard–" before the other villain popped off a shot.

The gunshot sounded insanely loud to Izuku, worse than one of Kacchan's explosions, and he would have shouted in horror had he stood and watched, even if it was Shigaraki. Instead, he had reacted the second the gun had appeared and he'd realized what would happen. After all, as powerful and fatal as his quirk was, it wasn't like Shigaraki could catch a bullet in mid-air and disintegrate it. Izuku could manage to use up to twenty-five percent of One for All and he used every ounce of it to jump to Shigaraki and knock him out of the way of the bullet. It grazed his arm, which stung like hell, but it wasn't deep.

When the dust settled from Izuku's quick action, a strange tension seeped into the air. The villain looked positively shocked that he'd missed his target when he had been so close while Shigaraki wore an expression that looked torn between stunned and furious, his face now visible since the speed in which Izuku had shoved him out of the way had knocked the hand off. Izuku, for his part, didn't look ashamed at all. Yeah, he'd saved his enemy, the guy who had had a hand in kidnapping Kacchan and forcing All Might to retire, but… He wasn't going to let him get killed right in front of him.

"You saved him?" the villain demanded, as if he both couldn't believe it and didn't know how.

Shigaraki's red eyes were locked on Izuku's and he said absolutely nothing, but Izuku could see the question in his eyes. _You saved me?_

Honestly, Izuku didn't have an answer. If he'd wanted Shigaraki to die, he would have left him hours ago to fend for himself. The villain didn't want him. Likely he would've been left alone and Shigaraki would have had to fight him on his own. Villains and heroes alike could be killed by a gun, no matter how strong they were.

When he heard the cock of the gun again, Izuku reacted fast, spinning on his heel and jumping so that he could kick the gun out of the villain's hand. He yelped when Izuku's foot connected with his wrist and the gun went sailing in the air. Shigaraki snatched it and both the villain and Izuku turned in preparation for it to be turned on them, but instead, the villain leader disintegrated it and poured the useless dust onto the forest floor.

The villain sneered. "I thought you'd love to use that on me in real life."

"That would be pointless," Shigaraki replied thoughtfully as he picked up the severed hand, but didn't put it back on right away. He was rather calm now that the weapon was destroyed, but then he must have known that they had the advantage now. His adversary could either take them back or suffer the consequences. "Take us back."

"Don't want to leave the little future hero here?" the villain asked. "I thought you wanted him dead."

"I do," Shigaraki simply said. Izuku rolled his eyes. There went the power of teamwork. Saving his life apparently meant that he wouldn't leave him in the woods. "But I want it done on my terms." Better than nothing, he supposed. "Now take us back and I'll consider giving you time to run before the League hunts you down."

With an aggravated grunt but a terrified gleam in his eyes, the villain zapped them with his quirk before Izuku could even argue about where they would be transported. In the blink of an eye though, he found himself standing exactly where he'd been hours ago with Shigaraki next to him. In the middle of the night now, there was no one around them, but at least they were back in the city. The villain wasn't with them, but judging from the lack of a furious expression on his face, Shigaraki had expected as much. Still, grudges ran deep in his blood. It would do that villain some good to never show his face in this country again.

"So that was…weird," Izuku settled on saying. Shigaraki gave a noncommittal sniff. "What did you do to piss off that guy anyway?"

Shigaraki didn't say anything at first, merely staring down at the severed hand. He still hadn't put it on so Izuku could see the almost pensive expression on his face. It was calmer than he had ever seen him before. Normally there was something crazed, passionate, and off about him, but right now, standing in the dark on the edges of a streetlamp, he looked…normal.

"I singled him out to kill in around twenty games of Fortnite, sometimes even killing him right when he respawned," Shigaraki finally answered.

Izuku's jaw dropped as he gawked at Shigaraki. "Are you…?" He clamped his mouth shut and narrowed his eyes. No way. This was… He had to have heard him wrong. But no, he had been very clear and straightforward. "Are you saying that I got caught up - and almost died - in a grudge match between villains that was started by a video game?"

"I killed him a lot," Shigaraki added, as if that helped matters. It did not.

"Why?" Izuku asked, completely mind-boggled.

Shigaraki shrugged his shoulders and put the hand back on his face. "He wouldn't mute his mic."

And with that, he turned and walked away, his red shoes glowing dimly in the light, until the darkness took him away. Izuku couldn't even get his brain to work in order to force his feet to move forward to stop him. He was too stunned to think, much less chase someone down. Distantly, he knew that he had to find a way to call someone to let them know that he was alive and safe, but it was hard to follow that thought through after that bombshell had been dropped.

All Izuku knew was that he was going to take a break from any online PVP games, just to be safe.


End file.
